School safety and security remained on the minds of Carroll County officials following the deadly Valentine’s Day high school shooting in Florida, with conversations continuing this week around Gov. Larry Hogan’s recently announced supplemental budget.

The money for the center will go toward hiring analysts and social media trackers, and allocating personnel and resources in more regions of the state, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Center personnel will also assist schools in “conducting safety assessments and implementing new safety standards required by the governor’s emergency legislation.”

County Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5, expressed concern over how the extra funding would be allocated during a briefing of the Board of County Commissioners by the legislative liaison to Annapolis Mike Fowler on Tuesday morning. Fowler was meeting with the board to provide them with an update on the 2018 General Assembly legislative session as it approaches the two-thirds mark.

“I think it’s important for us to advocate for … some objective measure, either in terms of number of facilities or number of students, that’s not weighted towards other things that really don’t address this particular kind of safety and security concern,” Howard said, adding that some may argue that crime rates and socioeconomic status impact school shootings. “I don’t think there is a particular demographic … that coincides with these kinds of terrible tragedies.”

No one can predict where or when or how something like this happens, he added, asking Fowler to bring these concerns to the county’s delegation to the General Assembly.

On the heels of Tuesday morning’s school safety discussion, Commissioner Richard Rothschild, R-District 4, announced he would be going to Annapolis that afternoon to testify against a gun bill.

Rothschild took issue with the first half of the bill that deals with the magazine limit, and said it isn’t an “everyday firearms law.”

“This is unique because it adds the word possession, which means if this law passes, there are likely thousands if not tens of thousands of Carroll County citizens that will overnight become criminals,” he said.

Rothschild questioned how the state would plan to try to confiscate the magazines from citizens who purchased them when they were legal and said it would result in “state government-sponsored criminal raids on law-abiding citizens.”

“What are we going to do, send storm troopers to knock on doors?” Rothschild said.

Rothschild asked for commissioner support on his opposition, though his fellow board members declined to take a position until they had read the bill themselves.

Fowler updated the commissioners on two local bills, one of which recently passed the Senate floor, he said.

The bill allowing Carroll County residents to reuse greywater has made forward progress, Fowler told commissioners. Commissioner President Dennis Frazier, R-District 3, put forward a bill that would allow the use of greywater, the relatively clean wastewater that comes from baths, sinks, washing machines and other appliances. It would allow a person to use up to 400 gallons of greywater per day for “certain residential purposes,” according to the bill.

Fowler said the bill passed the Senate floor Monday night, and has moved the quickest out of the Carroll bills.

Howard has pushed for a bill that would allow Carroll County Public Schools to opt out of some state mandates if state funding dipped below 45 percent of a county board’s three-year moving average annual budget for the school system, something Fowler said has officially been introduced as Senate Bill 1227.

Fowler also updated the commissioners on two statewide issues that will affect Carroll — the federal tax bill’s impact on Maryland taxes, as well as a bill put forward following the findings of the 21st Century School Facilities Commission that looked into state school construction.

The state tax bill has been a major discussion during this session following changes to federal tax law. As it stands in Maryland’s tax code, a person cannot itemize their state taxes if they don’t itemize their federal taxes. Under the new federal tax law, many will choose to take the larger standard deduction and not itemize, which could lead to an increase in what people owe for Maryland taxes.

Fowler said the tax legislation “still remains uncertain,” and more than 120 tax-related bills are still in session without any movement. But, Fowler said, it’s sounding like counting both state and local taxes combined, there may only be about 7 percent of people paying more money because of how the change in federal tax law affects the state code.

In an interview with the Times, Fowler said the first step will be the statewide building condition assessment, which would rank the schools and then be kicked over to a work group that is being formed, to get a baseline.